Property owners in Healdsburg’s Fitch Mountain neighborhood are watching closely this month as Sonoma County Supervisors prepare to adopt tighter restrictions governing residential septic systems located near the Russian River.
Supervisors will vote May 22 on whether to approve new local rules intended to help reduce Russian River pathogen pollution associated with OWTS — onsite wastewater treatment systems — and Fitch Mountain is one of the county’s targeted riverside neighborhoods where old sewage disposal systems may need upgrades or replacement in order to comply with modern health regulations.
All Fitch Mountain houses are served by OWTS, some installed with permits, some not, but how many Fitch Mountain OWTS need inspections and upgrades or replacement is unknown.
“We are all on OWTS, whether a system or cesspools,” said Fitch Mountain resident Dave Henderson in an email last week. “No one knows how many of each or in what shape, not even PRMD (the county Permit and Resource Management Department).”
To find out how many Fitch Mountain houses have no permit on record, “Someone would have to pull all the permits (where there are any) and count,” said Henderson.
The job of counting them all will fall to state Regional Water Quality Control Board officials as they tighten the noose on potentially hazardous pre-code OWTS believed to be serving about 5,000 residences and commercial properties near the Russian River and its tributaries in Sonoma County. On Fitch Mountain there are approximately 350 customers connected to the Fitch Mountain water system.
Fitch Mountain Association representatives will be among affected property owners expected to be out in force May 22 when the Board of Supervisors meets to adopt a new “OWTS manual” for all Sonoma County, with special attention given to OWTS close to the Russian River and its tributaries.
“We’re trying to ensure that Fitch Mountain property owners get a fair shake,” said Fitch Mountain residents Henderson and Pat Abercrombie in a statement to county supervisors from the OWTS Residents of the Russian River committee representing Fitch Mountain and other historic “non-sewer-served” riverfront communities of the Lower Russian River.
One thing OWTS committee members want is more time before the OWTS changes go into effect. OWTS owners also want reassurance that public funding resources will be available to low-income residents who may need low-interest loans or grants to repair or replace their septic systems in order to comply with the more stringent state regulations.
“I’m going to be asking a lot of questions over the next couple of weeks over the how the county LAMP (Local Agency Management Plan) impacts the highest triage areas,” said Fourth District Supervisor James Gore. The county needs a state-approved LAMP to remain in charge of local OWTS regs, otherwise the state will come in to enforce the stricter rules, said Gore.
“I’ve made a commitment with the county and the community to have an appropriate phase-in,” said Gore. “That will include implementation dollars to help vulnerable communities” along the lower river.
But allowing the status quo to continue with problem OWTS is not an option, said Gore. “I can’t support a policy that continues to have water quality issues” with septic systems that are “harmful to the environment,” said Gore. “This is less a question of if and more a question of how,” to bring substandard OWTS into compliance with modern health and safety regulations.
The county’s Local Agency Management Plan to address OWTS “needs to be adaptable and integrative,” said Gore.
Fitch Mountain Association concerns were itemized in an email last week advising residents of potential changes under the proposed new regulations:
Some of the changes:
Cesspools will not be allowed anymore. “If you have a cesspool it is just a matter of time before you have to replace it,” said the Fitch Mountain list. “If you are on a small lot, a steep lot or live on soil that does not percolate, this could be a challenge for you.”
Requesting most any kind of a building permit to work on your house will trigger the need for a “basic operational inspection” of your OWTS by a “qualified consultant.” If your system does not meet the new regulations, you will need to upgrade it to code conforming before getting your building permit
The water board will be sending out assessment questionnaires beginning around summer 2019. These will ask whether you have a permit for your existing septic system, what type and size is it, how far is it from the river or mapped stream and when was it last serviced. If you don’t have a copy of the permit issued for your septic system and PRMD doesn’t either, you may have to upgrade your system whether you are seeking a building permit or not.
If any part of your lot is within 100 feet of the river or a mapped stream, at some point you are going to have to install some form of supplemental treatment. “It’s a little fuzzy what this means,” said the Fitch Mountain Association.
Some critics of the new OWTS regulations say the new rules could make some houses uninhabitable and may worsen the county’s housing crunch exacerbated by last year’s wildfire destruction.
“They could be condemning properties” when the new rules go into effect, said Guerneville Realtor Herman Hernandez. “If you have a rental property that you have to bring up to code and you have to double the rent to offset the cost of a new septic system then you’ve just eliminated an affordable rental home.”
The absence of designated government financial assistance to help low-income property owners comply with potentially costly mandatory septic upgrades has been a key sticking point in implementing the new state and county regulations.
“If you’re on a fixed income and you can’t do it, where do you find potential financial assistance?” said Hernandez.
In some cases homeowners or rental landlords could be looking at a $70,000 bill to bring a property into compliance with the new health regulations, say Russian River Realtors and property owners familiar with the potential costs of repairing or replacing antiquated and often unpermitted septic systems near the Russian River.
Alarm over the potential consequences of the new regulations has Realtors also urging a big turnout when the supervisors discuss the regulations on May 22.
The hearing had been scheduled for May 8 but was pushed back two weeks so residents will have more time to review the proposed revisions to the county’s OWTS manual, said Fifth District Supervisor Lynda Hopkins.
“I requested two more weeks for people to review the materials prior to the hearing, said Hopkins. The lower river’s worries “aren’t exaggerated,” she said.
The county is now playing an intermediary role trying to facilitate local compliance with the evolving state rules governing OWTS throughout California, said Hopkins.
“We didn’t make the rules but we have to follow the rules,” said Hopkins.
“The state guidelines really don’t work very well on the lower Russian River and in the west county along the Laguna de Santa Rosa,” said Hopkins.
For example the new regulations will require a two-foot separation between groundwater and a septic system, a condition that “is not really achievable for much of the lower Russian River valley and the Laguna,” said Hopkins. “That makes it incredibly difficult to implement any kind of affordable system.”
If the new regulations are approved “there will no longer be any voluntary repairs for septic system or failed leach systems,” said river residents Kyla Brooke, Susan Packer and Rich Holmer in a letter to the county addressing the new OWTS manual.
Older sub-standard septic systems such as cesspools won’t be acceptable under the new rules. “Small lots on steep slopes close to the river are going to be in trouble,” said Kyla Brooke, a Villa Grande resident and member of the OWTS Residents of the Russian River.
State estimates indicate that 15,000 septic systems may need upgrades in the Russian River watershed and approximately 5,000 of those might have to be totally replaced to bring the properties into compliance with modern health and building codes.
Homes and businesses in Monte Rio, Fitch Mountain and hundreds of other residences near the Russian River in Forestville, Summer Home Park and Hacienda will be affected by the coming regulations to bring older substandard septic systems into compliance.
The state and local septic system policy, established several years ago by state Assembly Bill 885, applies to the state’s estimated 1.2 million existing septic systems and to all new septic system installations. In Sonoma County there are now a total of about 53,000 onsite septic systems, according to state figures.
